Swinging the gear

Swinging a Taifun's gear

by Ray Davids with Marion Janik

The shop that performed the recent annual inspection on N67LM required that the plane be jacked up and the landing gear retracted and extended - in other words 'swing the gear'. I was a relatively new owner and was puzzled as to how this was to be performed since there were no jacking 'hard' points on the underside of the wings that I could find. I was 'trapped' in the mentality of a former owner of a Cessna C-177RG which had hard points on the underside of the wing and which had been jacked up several times and had its gear swung. Page 30 of the Taifun manual however, somewhat mysteriously, described a fixture that would fit into the wing stub, but I had never seen such a fixture and the shop that was to perform my annual said that they might have to develop and fabricate such a fixture! Images of many dollar signs flashed through my mind. Luckily I had a hangar-mate, Marion Janik, who was experienced with these things and he said that he had such fixtures and the jacks to boost 67LM into the air a foot or so. In fact, he said the jacks were for a "-Boeing". Apparently, Marion, an engineer with Garrett Air Research for many years, and owner/pilot of a Taifun 17E N95CS had these fixtures fabricated with the help of ingenious and highly capable Mechanic/Pilot/A&P Wes Wiercioch, a fellow with over 9,000 hours flying American Eagle turboprops among other aircraft. Wes had berthed his C-177 Cardinal in our hangar before I came along and now tied it down in hangar HH-25 at Whiteman Airport (KWHP) in Pacoima, CA on an elevated platform that he designed and fabricated. I had, as hangar mates, two highly talented and resourceful engineers, for Bob Gurr, who owned N11VR in our hangar, had designed many of the rides at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. When I bought N67LM all I got with it was a couple of wing-dollies. I even had to copy a towbar of Bob Gurr's and have it made at a local shop.

Marion's fixtures fit perfectly of course, but I could barely lift one, and so he assisted me in performing the work (OK, I'll face it - he did ALL the work) of plugging the fittings into the wing stubs and then boosting the plane up with those huge jacks. But first the wings had to be disconnected and that turned out to be almost like a brain surgeon's delicate operation. There is a very small pin in the 'knuckle' of the wing fitting that has to be removed and carefully stored against loss. Marion had thick foam rubber pads to rest the wing roots on after they were disconnected. Then we called the A&P who was doing the annual and I climbed up into the cockpit and cranked the gear up and down as he lay under the belly (brave fellow). It is important to support the tail during this exercise, and the wing dollies for 67LM actually tie together under the tail with a pin through a hole in a small skeg-like device on the underside of the tail.

I had been skeptical of the need for this effort as the last few times I had flown the plane I had not had any problems with the gear. However, the A&P found that one of the gear doors had been rubbing against a brakeline which needed to be repositioned to avoid eventually fraying and possibly rupturing the brakeline.

Now the wings had to be re-connected again and that locking pin very carefully aligned with two very small holes and inserted in the hinge. Marion reminded me that I had not taken any pictures of the locking pin in the 'knuckle' hinge of the wing. I will have to wait to take that picture when I have folded the wings of my Taifun to put it back in the hangar.

I thought that this description might be of some use for other Taifun owners, as I had never seen anything like it described before. The fixtures fit in the same ports in the wing stub as the wing fittings do. I hope the accompanying pictures and description will be of use to other Taifun owners.

Swinging the Gear on Taifun 17E N67LM
Pictures taken by Ray Davids - Fixtures and Jacks supplied by Marion Janik

1. Left and right fixtures to fit in wing stubs